Asmongold puts Riot Games on blast after company-wide layoffs

Twitch star Asmongold has spoken out against Riot Games, following company-wide layoffs resulting in roughly 11% of the developer’s total workforce being let go.

Riot Games, the developers notably known for being the masterminds behind League of Legends and Valorant, announced mass layoffs in a blog post on January 22.

The company explained they are taking steps to focus on areas that players are invested in, while reducing commitment to areas that don’t have as much of an impact.

Subsequently, the developers shut down Riot Forge, and let go of approximately 530 employees globally, roughly 11% of the company’s total workforce.

Asmongold lashes out at Riot following mass layoffs

During the beginning of his January 23 livestream, Asmongold discussed the layoffs at Riot, where he made an example out of ‘The Mageseeker’ an action RPG indie game that was published under Riot Forge — explaining that simply nobody played the title.

Furthermore, he noted how six other games published under Forge similarly all performed poorly. However, the Twitch star didn’t blame the developers. “Why did these games not perform well? They didn’t perform well because they were not priced according to their value,” he claimed.

“They were priced according to their IP. Mageseeker was a $15 game that was in the League of Legends universe, so it was $40. It’s too much.”

Admitting the game was good, Asmongold hit out at the marketing and finance teams within Riot, explaining he believes they should be the ones the company gets “rid of.”

“The marketing department at Riot? Like, those are the people that they should get rid of. The people who decided the financials for those games should not work in the company anymore,” he said.

“It was such a bad idea to go to market and sell a game at an omega premium, to an audience of people who are used to consuming games for free.”

While the company claims they’re committed as ever to their other IPs such as Valorant, League of Legends, and Teamfight Tactics, it’s unclear if the recent layoffs at Riot will impact development.